The Small Venue Survivalisthttp://smallvenuesurvivalist.com
Practical advice and insight for people whose shows play to 200 folks or fewer.Wed, 23 May 2018 20:01:54 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.6smallvenuesurvivalist/updateshttps://feedburner.google.comThe POTH Commentaries – VCAs/DCAshttp://smallvenuesurvivalist.com/the-poth-commentaries-vcas-dcas/
Wed, 23 May 2018 20:01:54 +0000http://smallvenuesurvivalist.com/?p=2783

VCA/ DCA control is very handy, especially for “non-homogenous” routing situations.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Author’s Note: This article is the first in a short series that addresses concepts and happenings related to Pigs Over The Horizon, a Pink Floyd tribute starring Advent Horizon and Friends.

When you start working with more full-featured consoles, you’ll likely run across something you might not have seen before. It’s a control feature called the VCA, or sometimes DCA on digital desks. What is this strange creature? What is it good for?

First off: A VCA is a Voltage Controlled Amplifier. The “D” comes in as a way to say that the same concept is being applied in the digital realm. (In my opinion, a digital system has it much easier, because you don’t have to work with analog circuit logic and the complexities of components or circuit layouts that come with that whole business.) The whole notion rests squarely on how it’s possible to build gain stages that modify the applied change to an audio signal in proportion to a separately applied control signal. If you have a number of control signal generators available, and can choose which control signal to apply to other gain stages, then you end up with a number of VCA/ DCA assignments. Connect a fader to the control signal generator such that the control signal is modified by that fader, and you have a VCA that’s intuitive to manage.

The VCA/ DCA concept, then, is that of a control group. When you assign faders to a control group, you are directing the console to maintain the relative balance that you set amongst those faders, while also giving you an overall level control for all of those channels at once.

“Like routing all those channels through a bus?” you ask.

Yes and no. The magic of the VCA/ DCA is that you get bus-like level management, but your routing is unaffected. In other words, VCA/ DCA groups are control groups independent of audio signal considerations. This was a big deal for me with Pigs Over The Horizon, because of how we did the playback FX.

The playback FX were in surround. Two channels were routed up front (in mono, actually), with two more channels that were sent directly to surround left and surround right, respectively. Once the surround channels were “lined up” with respect to each other and the feeds to the front, I didn’t want to change that relationship – but I DID want to be able to ride the overall FX cue volume if I had to.

I couldn’t achieve what I wanted by busing the four FX channels together; They would all have ended up going to a single destination, with no way to separate them back out to get surround again. By assigning them to a DCA group, though, it was a cinch. The routing didn’t change at all, but my ability to grab one control and regulate the overall volume of the unchanged balance was established.

Of course, busing is still a very important tool. You need it whenever you DO want to get a bunch of sources to flow to a single destination. This might not just be for simple combining. You might want to process a whole bunch of channels with exactly the same EQ and compression, for example, and then send them off to the main output. If that’s not what you’re after, though, a VCA/ DCA group is a great choice. You don’t chew up a bus just for the simple task of grouped volume control, and if you change your mind on the routing later it’s not a big deal. Your grouped controls stay grouped, no matter where you send them, again, because of that “independence” factor. The VCA/ DCA has nothing to do with where signals are coming from or where they’re going – it only changes the gain applied.

I personally am not as heavy a user of VCA/ DCA groups as some other audio humans, but I see them as a handy tool that I may end up leveraging more in the future. I’m glad I know what they are, because they’re a great problem solver. If your console has them, I definitely recommend becoming familiar with their usage. The day may come when you need ’em!

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: Recurring concert series.

Venue: The South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society

Load-in: I couldn’t get my regular spot, because I was very early and a bunch of folks were there for another event. I did remember that using the stairs is a terrible option, and so I walked the gear around on the sidewalk instead. I felt much less tired afterwards – no data on any time differential, though. As happened for the previous LCS, I had setup help come in at exactly the right moment to cap things off.

Load-out: Many hands continue to make light work, and my new technique (which is to pack and load out progressively, rather than to pack everything first and then load everything out) feels pretty good. It might be faster, or it might not – although I’m pretty sure we set a load-out record on this go-around. I’m learning that LCS teardown is more about me managing the process than being hands-on with gear all the time.

What Went Well

Working with old friends: The first act, Pat And Roy, were folks I remembered well from my Fats days. They know me, I know them, and both parties are aware of what the other party needs. Shows with people you’re acquainted with are like a good open-house gathering with a jam session attached; You get to be comfortable and enjoy yourself.

Making new friends: Whenever an act says, “that was some of the best sound we ever had,” that’s a great feeling. It’s an especially great feeling when it’s your first day with that group. I will also say that it’s quite amazing how just getting the basics right (showing up, having your monitor rig tuned somewhat sanely, generally giving a hoot about the goings on) will get you a long way towards getting the “best sound ever” nod.

Yes, you can do a big, bluegrass band unplugged: There were a LOT of instruments and open mics up on the deck for the second act, but there weren’t any real problems. We had a couple of short feedback chirps at one point, but nothing that had to be battled with over the course of the set. The key, of course, is a great band that knows how to be a band before a PA system gets added. All they needed was a bit of “fill” from monitor world, where the foldback blends gently with the acoustic output of the instruments. Screaming-hot monitor gain is the gateway to many problems, so not needing that kind of setup fixes lots of issues by way of prevention. The same goes for FOH, of course. There was no call to be ear-splittingly loud, especially because the basic blend was already there from the performers themselves.

What Could Have Been Better

Why doesn’t this feel better than it does?: For all the good points of the show, I must admit that I spent my entire time at FOH with the sensation that I was struggling with it. In hindsight, I think that my real worry was how the overall sound of the show wouldn’t “clean up” to my liking. I was really keyed into all the room reflections I was hearing, while trying to be ginger with both volume and EQ. I eventually got to a pretty good place, but it took me a long time to get there – and even then, I didn’t feel that I had a truly crisp, defined mix going. (To be fair, I think the only person who was even a little bit unhappy was me, so…)

Conclusion

This was the close of my second season with the IAMA LCS, and I’m glad to be coming back on for a third round.

]]>The Pro-Audio Guide For People Who Know Nothing About Pro-Audio, Part 7http://smallvenuesurvivalist.com/the-pro-audio-guide-for-people-who-know-nothing-about-pro-audio-part-7/
Wed, 16 May 2018 17:02:42 +0000http://smallvenuesurvivalist.com/?p=2777

Amplifiers and loudspeakers bring us to the end of my series for Schwilly Family Musicians.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

“Now that we’ve turned audio into electricity and back again, we’ve reached the end of this series.”

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: Recurring, multi-day, single facility.

Venue: The Jeanne Wagner Theater at The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, a high-dollar facility that is VERY classy. The stage is cavernously huge, with a full fly-system and a ceiling height to match. The new toy this year was an automated raise/ drop controller for the grand drape. I didn’t get to play with it, but it was cool just being around it.

Load-in: I got in the van to leave, and the danged thing wouldn’t start! Fortunately, my dad has one of those “tiny package, huge current” jumpstart kits, and that got me on the road. Once you get let into the facility, the load-in is actually pretty posh; These folks have big doors that a cargo van can definitely wiggle into. I got the gear indoors, then clambered back into the van to park it, and…click. Nothing. (I had, of course, swiped Dad’s jumpstarter, so I impressed the technical director and one of his assistants by giving myself a jolt and going on my way.) Even with all the drama, I managed to be early.

Load-out: I love the Rose Wagner, but I hate where they put it. Or maybe I hate where they put the things around it? They’re right behind a large, popular nightclub, and that means the back alley – which is already a bit tight – can get even more constricted with VIPs who park there. With Samba Fogo, the approaching end of the show run means that I start silently reciting things like the Serenity Prayer (sometimes with more or less cursing), readying myself to “just deal” with whatever situation crops up in the back. Of course, the last time around was pretty darn okay, as was this iteration, and I had plenty of help getting everything buttoned up and loaded. I’m pretty sure we actually set a record for the elapsed time to pack up and go back home this year. That’s even including my standard, 800-point turn to get the “cargo ship” turned around in the confines of the alley. I got help with that at the end too, which was very nice. Maybe it was only a 600-point turn this time. (Seriously, the van feels very unwieldy in downtown Salt Lake…)

What Went Well

It’s Samba Fogo!: Who wouldn’t want to work with high-energy Brazilian dance? There’s fire involved, such that the local authorities have to come out and approve the action. There’s a big ol’ drumline that can make a TON of noise without any help from electronic doodads. There are performers in the finale who (I think) are 7+ feet tall in heels and headdresses. Folks are happy to be there. It’s a complete package.

SC48 Automation: I have mixed feelings about the Avid SC48, but if I’m going to do snapshot automation it’s a great choice. The snapshot system is generally easy to understand, has crossfading available for many parameters, and also features a “scoping system” (defining what is or is not automated at any given point) which is both easy AND very flexible.

It’s A Snap(shot): I also have mixed feelings about snapshot automation, especially because my style of mixing lends itself to working on the fly. At the same time, snapshots allow the console to keep track of piece-to-piece changes for you, which is very helpful when you’re doing something like working blind: This year, a midstage curtain was closed for certain pieces, meaning I didn’t have visual cues as to what was being played or not. In such a situation, I say, “Let the console do the remembering.”

Hooray For The ACS: I don’t find the SC48 control surface to be all that great – mostly because I just don’t prefer physical surfaces anymore – but it does have a big, beautiful display called the ACS. The ACS puts a lot of power and information right in front of you, with an intuitive, mouse-driven interface that’s great for getting things done in a hurry. (I will admit to liking the fact that the physical surface is large and impressive-looking, but that only goes so far.)

Uncompression: Samba Fogo gets the whole prep-time thing absolutely right. We have a full-on tech day for sorting out audio and lighting issues, then another night for a dress rehearsal, and THEN we do the shows. We have time to pick at things and sort them out, instead of trying to just throw it all together at the last moment. I have a very soft spot for people who refrain from compressing a show schedule, because it makes my life so much happier – and helps me to do the best job possible.

What Could Have Been Better

I Miss MY Console: It might seem heretical to show partiality to a $2000 mixing desk versus a $30,000+ unit, but familiarity is a big deal. I’m unashamed to say that I definitely prefer an X32 to an SC48 when it comes to “features in common,” again, mostly because familiarity stops me from having to go hunting around for things. Oh, and honest-to-goodness remote capability is a big deal for me. Especially in a large facility, I really, really miss having stupid-easy remote control over the mixer. (Troubleshooting gets tiring when you have to run back and forth between the stage and booth.) And yes, the Avid runs plugins, but all I need them for is to engage functionality – like parametric output EQ – that an X32 simply has available as a built-in feature.

Did You Ask For Directions?: On our tech day, I wasted a whole bunch of time by not asking for help. I was 100% sure that I was running console outputs directly to the patchbay – but I wasn’t! I erroneously assumed that the snake I was running from was connected to the console…when it had nothing to do with the console at all. I would have been told that in 10 seconds if I had asked a house tech, but did I? Nope. I eventually yanked a couple of console outputs, jammed in a pair of short XLR cables, and then ran adapters to the bay. It was an incredibly roundabout way to do something that would have been easy if I just used the patch as intended. The upside is that I’ll probably remember that little misadventure forever, so it wasn’t a total loss. One of my strengths is that I WILL find a creative way to get things done. My weakness is sometimes going that route inappropriately.

Conclusion

Samba Fogo is a high-class gig that I lucked into, and I’m hoping to keep it.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

Job Type: One-off special.

Venue: The State Room, which is very arguably THE premiere Salt Lake City venue for “human scale” shows.

Load-in: Parked on the wrong side of the building, but I discovered the fact after I paid. Whoops! Not too much gear, though, so carrying it in through a fire door wasn’t a big deal.

Load-out: Moved the vehicle to the dock, and everything was so much easier!

What Went Well

Eating at the cool-kids’ table, metaphorically: A lot of people who would appear in a “Who’s Who Of Salt Lake City Live Music” were either playing the show or working the show. Most of them I had met, and it was excellent to be introduced to those I hadn’t. I may also have gotten on the State Room’s call list for crew. (Maybe.)

Eating at the cool-kids’ table, literally: Talia invited me to partake of the goodies in the green room, which is a very generous and classy thing for an artist to offer (especially when you’re ancillary crew and not a “must have this person for the show to happen”). I was overjoyed to discover an abundance of raspberries and blackberries, two of my favorite things in the world.

Collaborative environments: As I just said, I was an ancillary. I was there to multitrack the show for the sake of posterity and video, but if I hadn’t been there the actual gig would have gone on just fine. With that in mind, the courtesy and help I received from both the cast and crew (especially Adam, the A1) was stellar.

Well equipped venues are the best: I didn’t have to bring a split, because The State Room’s main stage box already has one. No muss, no fuss, no “figuring it out,” just plug, play, and go.

Hooray for digital: The aforementioned split went to my digital stagebox, which then had an AES50 line attached and run to the backstage area. This got me out of the way of everybody else – mostly, with one connection and one easily run cable.

This is a low pressure center: Not being directly part of the “live loop” meant that it was a very “chillaxed” evening for me. I got to just sit back, hit record, and dial up a quick mix for myself to enjoy the show. It was about as close as you can possibly get to being paid just for showing up.

What Could Have Been Better

I just remembered: We got part of the way through setting me in the upstage right corner before I remembered that I had brought my stagebox for the purpose of staying out of the way. Duh! Luckily we only lost a few minutes to that brain cramp.

Accidental displacement: I ended up in a back room that was supposed to have been the dressing room for the aerialist. She ended up having to share with some other folks, which wasn’t horrible but also not what was expected. Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that…

Conclusion

It was my very first time at The State Room, and I got to experience it in grand style at a killer show. I don’t think you can top that.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

“The point of loudspeaker management is to make final, overall adjustments to console output so that devices which actually create acoustical output (speakers, that is) can be used most effectively.”

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

What Went Well

The people you know: Who doesn’t love working with people who’s music they enjoy? I knew going in that I was going to like the tunes and be familiar with the (very solid) players involved.

Unexpected help is always appreciated: I didn’t have my usual, trusty, IAMA LCS sidekick Lonnie handy on the show, but I tried to allow myself extra time. Then, about halfway through the setup, Chris showed up and gave that final push to get everything ready with time to spare. Hooray!

Three cheers for check going as planned: Everybody was around for soundcheck on schedule, so we could run in the correct order (reverse, that is, where the first act checks last). The initial dial-up went fast, so we had lots of breathing room between then and the show. Oh can’t every gig be like this from now on?

When the mixes for the bands did settle down, I felt like they had this nice, “Jazzy” quality. What I mean by that is the sound was very much about the interplay of material from about 150 Hz to 10 kHz; A sort of “discerning person’s” tonality that’s about subtlety instead of power, boom, and sizzle.

What Could Have Been Better

Something’s not quite right, part 1: I didn’t notice in soundcheck that I had this weird buildup at around 500 Hz. It was actually pretty subtle, until it interacted in strange, intermittent ways with the vocals of Ischa from MiNX. It took me a long while to find and correct the problem – issues that aren’t steady-state are much tougher to address.

Something’s not quite right, part 2: Also with MiNX, the fine-tuning of the guitar/ vocal balance fought back more than I was used to. I started out much too gingerly with the guitar for the actual set. I overcorrected, overcorrected again (in the opposite direction), then got things mostly right by using some pretty dramatic compression, and then backed off the compression which wasn’t quite the ticket, so…

Whoa, Nelly: I came out of the gate a bit too “gangbusters” with the percussion for The Will Baxter Band, swamping the keys pretty badly until I got myself under control. In contrast, I was too light on the bass being played by Adam’s left hand, and had to keep reminding myself to give it the volume it deserved. (I thought it was all okay an hour before, I swear.)

Conclusion

I felt like I struggled a bit with the actual show, but everybody – including me – seemed to go home happy. It’s not like my own fun was ruined or anything. I was just a little surprised for a bit.

It’s hard for me to believe that 130 dB is possible from some loudspeaker designs.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

When a manufacturer claims that a loudspeaker system (say, a two-way arrangement in a single, vented enclosure) can create a 130 dB SPL peak at 1 meter with a 1000 watt peak power input, I’m a skeptic. Or rather, I should say that I’m a skeptic about how useful that 130 dB actually is.

What I’m getting at is this: A 1000 watt input is 30 dB above the 1 watt input level. Getting a direct-radiating cone driver to give you 100+ dB SPL of sensitivity in a consistent way is challenging (thought I will not say it’s impossible). There are, of course, plenty of drivers available that will get you over that mark of 100 dB @ 1 watt/ 1 meter, BUT, only with the caveat that the 100+ dB sensitivity zone is confined to a “smallish” peak around 2 kHz. The nice, smooth part of the response that doesn’t need to be tamed is probably between 95 – 97 dB. If you’re lucky, that zone might be just south of 100 dB.

When it comes to useful output, what really matters is what a driver can do with minimal variation across the bandpass it’s meant to reproduce. Peaks in different frequency ranges aren’t helpful for real work – although they do let you claim a higher peak-output number.

My disbelief, then, is rooted in the idea that any “affordable by mortals” loudspeaker model is probably not using an ultra-high performance, super-custom-built cone driver for the low-frequency bandpass. Sure, it might not be a driver that you can get off the shelf, but it’s tough for me to have faith that the very upper edge of loudspeaker performance is being tickled by whatever got bolted into the enclosure.

Now…I could be very wrong about this. In fact, I would prefer to be wrong, because I will always desire an affordable speaker that takes up no space, has no weight, and is infinitely loud from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Anything that gets closer to that impossible goal is a box I can welcome. At the same time, I prefer (and encourage) pessimism when reading manufacturer ratings. Sure, they say the box can make 130 dB peaks, but under what circumstances? Only at 2 kHz? Only when combined with room reflections?

If the numbers you claim are difficult to achieve, I’m going to need more than your word to accept them.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

“The most common destination for a channel’s signal is a bus. Buses are really what make a mixer a mixer: They’re signal lines meant to carry and combine a number of individual channel signals fed into them.”

I wrote this article for Schwilly Family Musicians. The rest of it is available for free, right here.

Please Remember:

The opinions expressed are mine only. These opinions do not necessarily reflect anybody else’s opinions. I do not own, operate, manage, or represent any band, venue, or company that I talk about, unless explicitly noted.

Want to use this image for something else? Great! Click it for the link to a high-res or resolution-independent version.

I’ve been asked if I can start writing up gig-logs. Thoughts about shows can be a bit of a touchy subject; When things don’t go well, folks can think they’re getting the blame. At the same time, treated carefully, there’s likely to be a wealth of teachable moments packed into any retrospective of a production.

So, yeah – let’s give this a try!

What Went Well

Advance information was key: I knew beforehand that I would have a healthy number of inputs and monitor mixes to contend with – AND that most of the heavy lifting would be done with instrument mics. Not having to figure things out at the last minute made life much smoother.

Lessons learned from others’ experiences are helpful: One of the best pieces of advice I’ve gleaned regarding “instrument mic” shows is that you should be very, very wary of making monitor world too loud right out of the gate. Start quiet, and then add on as needed. I’m pretty sure this concept saved my butt later. (I think this concept is true for every kind of show, actually, but shows with a lot of mics will kill you much faster if you forget.)

Build the show file at home: As per my usual, I walked into the space with a USB stick that had basic FOH and monitor-world console configurations preloaded. As soon as I was ready, I called up my scenes. I was then in a place where I could make “grab-n-go” tweaks without having to look at every parameter on everything. Having your routing, scribble strips, high-pass filters, channel compressor ratio/ timing parameters, and basic monitor-bus EQs in place will save you a LOT of time at the show.

Save your back: Putting the digital stagebox on a chair was one of the best ideas ever. I didn’t have to bend all the way down to interact with it, which was a lot faster and a lot more comfortable than the alternative.

What Could Have Been Better

Perishable skills are perishable: It took me a minute to get my head re-wrapped around thinking about two separate consoles that have to be recalled individually. I haven’t had to do that since the summer, so I’m out of practice and a little slow. I also tend to forget that acoustic instruments have solid output, but also tend to be farther from a mic than a “rock” vocal. Consequently, you have to be willing to get on the gas a bit more if folks really want to hear the monitors. If you haven’t done this kind of work in a while, you might be a bit surprised.

Scheduling is hard: I gave myself four hours to load-in, power, set, and line-check an 18 input show with five monitor mixes, a “double-hung” PA, and two light trees driven with DMX. I just barely got to “soundcheck ready” in time. I need to spec more of a setup buffer when I’m flying solo.

Almost but not quite: I’m used to being able to grab a direct-input instrument and put it confidently front and center when a solo comes up. With miced instruments, I have to be more ginger. Certain lead parts didn’t pop out in quite the way I had hoped.

That wall, though: The room is actually pretty okay, but I can’t say I’m a fan of the big, blank, flat wall right behind the stage as an acoustical feature.

Conclusion

The show came off well, with an appreciative crowd and musicians who seemed pretty happy when it was all said and done. I call that a win!